1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to steering systems for road vehicles and more particularly to a steering system of the type equipped with an anti-rotation mechanism for holding a steering wheel center pad or the like stationary irrespective of rotation of a steering wheel.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A steering system equipped with such an anti-rotation mechanism includes a pair of internal gears one of which is fixed to a jacket or column of a steering column assembly and the other is adapted to slip on a hub of a steering wheel and mount thereon a steering wheel center pad, and a pair of pinions mounted on a common shaft for rotation therewith and meshing with the internal gears. In this kind of steering system, it is desirable to prevent relative angular movement between the internal gears and the pinions since such movement causes play of the steering wheel center pad. To meet this requirement, there has been proposed a steering system in which a pair of resilient or elastic rollers mounted on a common shaft and adapted to be forcedly in contact with the inner cylindrical surfaces of the internal gears are utilized to frictionally hold one of the internal gears relative to the other as is disclosed in the Japanese Provisional Utility Model Publication No. 57-191654. While the above steering system has accomplished its desired objective, it has not proved entirely satisfactory since it requires a relatively large number of manufacturing and assembling processes and therefore a relatively expensive manufacturing and assembling cost.